WHAT a sorry state Bolton Wanderers find themselves in.

A little over a decade ago they finished sixth in the Premier League table and were playing in the UEFA Cup.

Now they are more than £170 million in debt, owe £2.2 million to HM Revenues and Customs and this week avoided being wound-up in the High Court.

Barring something approaching a miracle, they will go into administration during February and then be landed with a 12-point penalty, which will all but seal their relegation from the Championship.

At times like these it makes you wonder how a club can suffer such a spectacular fall from grace, particularly when they were dining at English football’s top table a few short years ago.

They aren’t the first and won’t be the last.

Leeds United have been down that well-trodden path, as have Portsmouth.

It is a shame to see but it is difficult to have any sympathy.

Clubs don’t just run up such huge debts by chance.

When the parachute payments from the Premier League diminish for a relegated club, they need to cut their cloth to suit.

If that means they don’t get back among the elite, so be it.

Clubs need to be sustainable, at any level.

There needs to be a long-term plan. Rich owners, Eddie Davies in Bolton’s case, cannot continually pump money in.

Somewhere down the line they’ll come a cropper.

That looks like what has happened to a once great club and, as always, it will be the long-suffering fans who are left to pick up the pieces.